New Breakthrough : Schizophrenia Cured!
-- Some Reflections on Lowen, Leary, Chopra and Liberation From Psychiatry
March 16, 2005
by Byron Fraser

Prefatory Word

The following
article is a slightly revised version of the original which was first
written and published over 10 years ago shortly after I had emerged
(in September of 1992) from a 5-year stint in jail and psychiatric
prison. It was conceived mostly as an extended bibliographical essay,
with some autobiographical elements thrown in, under the overarching
rubric of a kind of “General Address to the Anti-Psychiatry
Movement” (such as it was, back then). Somewhat unwieldy,
amateurish and rough-hewn-- I realize now, in retrospect --these
“reflections” nevertheless enjoyed a fairly widespread
“unofficial” circulation, and were felt by many to have
some merit, or at least the kernels of some significant or relevant
thoughts. Looking back, I think they might have some enduring value
as a kind of unique concatenation of intellectual influences and
real-life experience that could be useful as a reference-guide to
others. I know this initial exploratory template-of-sorts served me
well as a time-binding summary update from which to pre-capitulate
much more fruitful work over the years ahead. And I believe much of
the subject matter is still as timely as ever.

-- B.F. (Feb., ’05)

Since the
psychiatric establishment is in the habit of coming up with a new
cure-all drug which isn’t really very toxic, has few known
(yet) side-effects, and which will finally treat that disease--
mental “illness” --at its biochemical core (a veritable
“magic bullet”) every six months or so, I thought it
incumbent upon those of us in the anti-psychiatry underground to also
get into the habit of proclaiming our own alternative “cure to
end all cures”…every six months or so. While they can
claim the mantle of modernity and the best that reason engrossed in
materialism have to offer, we can find solace in the ancient wisdom
and sure knowledge that God is truly on our side. Then we’ll
just see who loses credibility first.

Seriously though,
the truth is that the Psycho-Pharmaceutical Complex, with its
billions of vested interest dollars in drug company profits and
well-salaried bureaucrat-professionals, is nowhere nearer a real cure
to what is called “schizophrenia” than it was back in the
1950s when “chemical lobotomies” were first hailed as a
“humanistic” advance over the real thing. These
aficionados cling ever more desperately to the Big Lie of their
“progress” myth while the dying edifice of their
teetering Medical Model lurches forward threatened with imminent
extinction. Whole careers dedicated to mindless conformity to
institutionalized malpractice hang in the balance, while the rotting
structure is mercilessly exposed by a few valiant outsiders like
Szasz, Mancuso, Breggin and Farber [1]. Even the hapless victims of
psychiatry’s coercive interventions have begun to realize that
The Emperor truly has “no clothes”-- and that behind all
the pseudo-scientific posturing lies an empty shell of bold-faced
ignorance, which will collapse in the wake of even cursory
intellectual inquiry. The crux of the problem is that orthodox
psychiatry has been stuck, for decades now, in a totally outmoded
worldview, spinning its wheels and looking for answers in all the
wrong places, because of the error of attempting to treat at a
materialistic level a problem which is fundamentally nonmaterial.
The good news is that genuine cutting-edge science is proving that it
is no longer meaningful to talk about existence-in-general-- and
subjective mental reality, in particular --exclusively in terms of
nothing but discrete/quantifiable categories of matter (see, for
instance, The Matter Myth [2], by Paul Davies and John
Gribbin). The work of such once-obscure philosophers as Max Stirner
[3] and Bishop Berkeley[4] on the primary reality of the Creative
Ideal (or no-“thing”) is being vindicated and the
confluence of the occult and the scientific is being realized more
and more every day (see especially, Michael Talbot’s Mysticism
and The New Physics[5]). Indeed, we stand on the brink of a
societal paradigm shift of monumental proportions that will sweep
orthodox psychiatry (“biopsychiatry”) in its wake,
confining it appropriately-- and at last! --to the dustbin of
history.

As I pointed out in
my review of Seth Farber’s Madness, Heresy, and the Rumor of
Angels:The Revolt against the Mental Health System[6], our main
anti-psychiatric line of attack must emphasize the
bioenergetic/spiritualistic in contradistinction to the
biochemical/materialistic. We need to have an answer to the question:
“Well, what would you do to replace drugging?” And the
fact is that numerous effective alternative treatment modalities
exist, but they are almost universally shunned by the psychiatric
establishment which claims an exclusively superior know-how based on
its grounding in-- or tie to --physiological medicine. Actually,
however, this pretense of expertise is an elaborate farce which can
only maintain its status through the restrictive trade practice of
deliberately selective coercive exclusion (“barriers to entry”)
via governmental medical licensure. And, as with all monopolies, the
structure is designed to bilk the maximum amount of money out of the
public while providing the least amount of product/service and, at
the same time, benefiting a privileged few. This State-granted
largesse is jealously guarded for, without it, they would have to
share the wealth with an abundant array of alternative health care
practitioners providing vastly more services at greatly reduced cost.
As things stand, psychiatry has taken the predictably easy
(“cost-effective” for them) way out which entails
drugging the patient, patting them on the head, and sending them on
their way. If the patient recovers from their temporary
irrationality-- which is often achieved independently and
spontaneously by the individual simply having some time and space to
re-orient their thinking --then the drug has “worked” and
they have responded well to “treatment”. If not, then it
is simply the etiology of the “disease” which is deemed
chronic, lifelong and incurable. Never mind the fact that in cases of
enduring “illness” no attempt whatever has been made to
deal with symptoms at a cognitive level. That would involve
“talk-therapy” and bodywork and genuine transformations
on an ideational-energetic level. It would mean that psychiatrists
would have to get their hands dirty, acquire some real psychological
skills, and be able to shake free from their chauvinistic allegiance
to consensus reality-tunnels so as to empathize with the
meaningfulness of the alternative realities which are often part and
parcel of the “schizophrenic’s” evolutionary growth
process. To act as a guide to-- and facilitator of --a new plateau of
coherence, should be the goal.

One of the most
promising therapeutic approaches that I endorse, with reservations,
is the bioenergetics of psychiatrist, Alexander Lowen. Lowen was a
major disciple and interpreter of Wilhelm Reich who built a
considerable arsenal of efficacious technique and theory which has
had an enduring impact. The necessary rehabilitation of psychiatrists
who need to “get off drugs” will have come a long way
when the essence of Lowen is incorporated into mainstream practice.
It wouldn’t hurt either to re-affirm the validity of Reich’s
seminal contribution to character analysis with his theory of
“armoring” in the musculature of the body. That the road
to mental health lies along the path of integrating the
ideational-energetic contents of the body into conscious awareness,
is now beyond dispute.

The definitive
sourcebook of Lowen’s therapy is Bioenergetics [7],
billed on the cover as “the revolutionary therapy that uses the
language of the body to heal the problems of the mind”.
Therein, Lowen recollects his relationship to Reich, delineates his
personality typology, and outlines his therapeutic orientation with
applications to a variety of subjects and case studies. His therapy
is a variant of Westernized Yoga involving physical and breathing
exercises with some massage work. At its core is the appealing
concept of cultivating an “open heart”. This sounds
simplistic, I know, but a full realization of his meaning entails
considerable unpacking. In general, Lowen’s analytical tools
represent a useful addition to any psychiatrist’s repertory,
however, I fear he would relegate all saints and holy men to the
ranks of psychopathic power-trippers—who were “in denial”
(of course, of course) of their REAL needs. Which brings me to my
main bone of contention with-- and point of dissension from --Lowen/
Reich : their theory of sex. Lowen buys into Reich’s axiom that
“orgastic potency” defines mental health. The notion is
that sexual release and discharge breaks down characterological
armoring and causes a diminution of tension in the musculature. I
would argue, on the contrary, that sexual release causes a weakening
of bioenergetic integrity and a consequent reinforcing and
reimposition of the armored character structure. As unfashionable as
it may sound, I am in essential agreement with the 19th
Century alienists (the precursors of modern psychiatry) who taught
that excessive sex leads to mental and emotional instability and
neurosis. I believe, in fact, that Reich’s views on sex-- which
were a hold-over from Freud’s reduction of spirituality to
sexuality –contributed significantly to his own experience of
madness towards the end of his career. Specifically, while he had
many intimations of the evolutionarily advanced dimensions of
consciousness circuitry (as Leary would say), he was held back by his
sexual hang-DOWN to old energy patterns which were in conflict with
emergent realities. As Leary would also say, “pathology
precedes potential”[8]. Or, as Shakti Gawain expresses it in
The Path of Transformation [9], all “healing crisis”
appear when we have outgrown an old pattern, or way of being, but are
still unconsciously holding on to it. But to return more precisely to
the subject at hand, I advocate the Catholic orthodoxy of the East
Indian practice of brahmacharya [10]. And I think we all would all be
well-advised to heed the words of Thoreau who wrote:

“ ‘A
command over our passions and over the external senses of the body,
and good acts, are declared by the Ved to be indispensable in the
mind’s approximation to God.’ Yet the spirit can for the
time pervade and control every member and function of the body, and
transmute what in form is the grossest sensuality into purity and
devotion. The generative energy, which, when we are loose, dissipates
and makes us unclean, when we are continent invigorates and inspires
us. Chastity is the flowering of man; and what are called Genius,
Heroism, Holiness, and the like, are but various fruits which succeed
it. By turns our purity inspires and our impurity casts us down. He
is blessed who is assured that the animal is dying out in him day by
day, and the divine being established.”[11]

For those interested in
a more extensive exposition of the philosophy of the conservation and
transmutation of reproductive energy, I refer you to the masterful
treatment of C.J. Van Vliet in The Coiled Serpent [12]. He is
especially good around refuting notions of the pleasure principle and
the alleged necessity of sex for health. Another volume along the
same lines, which is more widely available, is Mahatma Gandhi’s
Self-restraint v. Self-indulgence [13].

My second nominee
for the title of “Mental Health Expert of the Century” is
the indomitable Tim Leary. This Eminent Emissary of Evolutionary
Mind, Higher Consciousness and Intelligence Agent par excellence
has done pioneering work which will still be being talked about for
many centuries to come. His shining example of courage in the face of
adversity was also an especial inspiration to me during those
potentially dark days when I was confined to “the hole”
for six months [14]. But his legacy will go far beyond mere Media
Myth and the celebrity status of a momentary counter-cultural guru.
For there is a substantive scientific theoretical and factual basis
for his brain-change technology, and this has many implications for
the mental health field. Paradoxical as this may sound coming from
one who shares Peter Breggin‘s abhorrence of neuroleptic drugs
(see Toxic Psychiatry, footnote No. 1)-- especially when they
are used to induce “chemical lobotomies” or an
institutionally-friendly genial stupor --I am not at all opposed to
the use of all drugs to treat “mental illnesss”. Nor is
this a concession to the Medical Model or the alleged biochemical
basis of “the disease”. Instead, what I submit is that
psychedelic drugs have the proven potential to radically alter the
mind and behavior-- in the direction of mental health --via
“metaprogramming the human biocomputer” (in John Lilly’s
phrase) through serial imprinting of the brain. Furthermore-- and
here I don’t know how much Leary would be in agreement with me
--I would want to claim that the relevant change induced, that comes
about by a release of energy and transformation of extant patterns
(what’s usually referred to as the creation of new “neural
pathways”), represents not only-- or even fundamentally
--static inscription or encoding that is quantitatively identifiable
at a discrete molecular level of any given neuron. Indeed we know
that all the atoms and molecules of one’s anatomy are totally
changed every year or so—yet the “Self”, intellect
and memory, remains. Again, science continues to confirm the
non-material nature of consciousness, with the most efficacious model
of the mind being based on a holograph that stores information
“non-locally” (see especially, Michael Talbot’s
chapter, “A Holographic Model of Consciousness”, in
Mysticism and the New Physics [footnote No. 5]).

Unfortunately the
radical beneficial therapeutic potential of psychedelics was stymied
by ignorant and reactionary statism. And we are still living in the
legal limbo of drug prohibition. But, as Robert Anton Wilson says,
what else would you expect on “the planet of the apes”?
[15] For an account of Leary’s early experiments with
psilocybin and prisoners, the dramatic success in reducing the
recidivism rate, and much else pertinent to the broader implications
of his work, see: Changing My Mind, Among Others [16]. And,
for many of the other brilliant books he has written since he got out
of jail, contact: New Falcon Publications (www.newfalcon.com).

The third
co-conspirator I want to discuss has been propelled into
well-deserved celebrity status of late and bids fair to be the
catalyst for major changes in the way we view modern medicine,
including mental health: I speak of Deepak Chopra. Chopra is a
medical doctor, practicing in the U.S., who combines the best
teachings of East Indian Philosophy with the latest findings of
quantum physics to come up with a unique approach to health that is
part revelation and part inspiration. His journey to stardom began
when he quit his post as head of a major Boston hospital, returned to
his native India, and hooked up with the ancient healing tradition
known as Ayurveda. He also connected with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
and started practicing TM. Upon returning to the U.S., he set up a
special clinic in Lancaster, Mass., devoted to Ayurveda and during
this last year he has established centers affiliated with a major
hospital chain. For a number of years he was thought of in New Age
circles as merely “the Maharishi’s medicine man”
but that, too, has changed as he has grown in stature. He has now
officially disassociated himself from the TM Movement-- mainly due to
their lack of credibility when it comes to making extravagant claims
about being able to teach people how to levitate and walk through
walls, etc. --although he remains on amiable terms with the
Maharishi.

Summarizing Chopra’s
theoretical orientation here is beyond my capacity, as I have only
read a couple or three of his books, however, from all that I know of
it, he seems to be in perfect sync with the dominant direction of
anti-psychiatry. He quite frankly embraces Spirit-- and I think we
should too --but he does not rely on sentimental belief. Rather he
grounds his gnosis in hard science. He recommends, for instance, God
and the New Physics [17] by Paul Davies and quotes, with favor,
the great English astronomer, Sir Arthur Eddington, who stated flatly
that the raw material of the whole universe is “mind-stuff”.
He concretizes conceptually the quantum realm and, in his book,
Quantum Healing—Exploring The Frontiers of Mind/Body
Medicine [18], he points the way to accessing “the gap”
between normal waking awareness and the Deep Self where there is
abundant energy and intelligence. He notes, insightfully, that “the
first thing to understand is that you are not a human being having
occasional spiritual experiences but a spiritual being having
occasional human experiences”. Then, in another small and
delightful book called Creating Affluence—Wealth
Consciousness in the Field of All Possibilities [19], Chopra
relates how the Maharishi asked a number of physicists to
characterize the Einsteinian unified field. Among other things, they
said that at the most basic sub-atomic particle level all that exists
is energy and information—and that it is living. It
could also be characterized as sheer potential. In sum, the universe
is alive and thinking [20]. Can you dig it?!

This last correlates
perfectly with my own experience of “god-consciousness”
which I achieved via the full awakening of kundalini at the age of 22
back in 1973. The story is worth recounting for the sake of science
and for the sake of others who will one day tread the same path. It
is a statistically rare occurrence (something many advanced adepts
often spend a lifetime unsuccessfully trying to achieve), though not
unknown in the annals of mysticism (see especially, Cosmic
Consciousness [21], by the famous Canadian psychiatrist-- and
noted associate of Walt Whitman --R.M. Bucke).

My step-by-step
cultivation of the ability to raise kundalini began with the study of
hypnosis on the recommendation of Nathaniel Branden, the prominent
psychologist and onetime disciple of Ayn Rand. I practiced daily and
recorded my adventures in a journal. Thus began a systematic
“mental-mapping” in which I identified, among other
things, numerous instances of “vegetative streamings”
(Reich’s term) while in Deep Trance. The keys to my system were
twofold: 1) developing the ability to focus conscious awareness
narrowly-- “like a flashlight” --deep into below-the-head
body regions and IDENTIFYING emotional-energetic substance on
those levels, and 2) developing the ability to focus conscious
awareness broadly-- to “let go” and do what I termed
“dissolve” or “eat/digest” data --to
INTEGRATE material normally outside of conscious awareness. I
was working on Ayn Rand’s definition of reason as “the
identification and integration of the data provided by man’s
senses”. It’s worth noting, too, that right up to and
including the time I experienced “god-consciousness” I
had never even seen or heard the word “kundalini” and had
no exposure to literature on the subject. I was an adamant atheist
well schooled in all the philosophical arguments against God and the
last thing I was seeking was a meeting with Him/Her/It.

In any case, I began
to experience more and more powerful streamings and pulsations while
in trance and these were accompanied more and more often by states of
conscious bliss and ecstasy. The seemingly most powerful state-- that
of a steady continuous stream of bioenergy from the base of my spine
to my head --I labeled “Supreme Integration”. But there
was to be an even higher state than this: what I now know to be the
state identical with what the yogis term “Nirvikalpa Samadhi”.
That is when you get to meet God face to face.

Without going into
detail as to time or place, I will do my best to describe what is
essentially an ineffable experience. It began, as usual, with a deep
hypnotic trance. I soon experienced steady pulsations of bioenergy
going up my back. These then became a solid stream moving back and
forth, like a snake across the grass. Gradually the side to side
motion stopped and turned into a powerful torrent flowing straight up
and down. Then, suddenly, I was propelled in consciousness to the
very top of my head. My mind was simultaneously expanded and I seemed
to see from “beyond” and “above”. I lost all
consciousness of time and had the inescapable feeling that I “kneweverything”. There was also light, an effulgence of light
reverberating through every aspect of my being. (This lasted fully
two weeks after I “came down” from my initial
god-consciousness high.) But the most phenomenal thing that occurred
was my immediate and unmistakable awareness of an overwhelming and
vast conscious presence stretching off in all directions to infinity.
He/She/It was right there next to me and there was no room for doubt;
it was in some ways like being a child again, saying your prayers,
and being absolutely sure that God is there to answer them. But this
was no regressive fantasy; I maintained awareness of my mature-self
consciousness. One of the distinctive things I remember about this
encounter with Cosmic Consciousness-- and this may seem odd to some
people --was that He/She/It seemed to be laughing the whole time: God
was literally “intoxicated with joy”! This must be where
the Smiling Buddha Tradition comes from.

To bring this
chapter to a close, be it known that I “came down” from
my communion after approximately an hour or two but continued to
experience the free flow of kundalini for a period of two weeks or so
after this. During that time I was in an almost continuous “body
of bliss” and I experienced many marvelous paranormal phenomena
(of which more, another time) but eventually my condition degenerated
into fairly acute psychosis. This is not an uncommon phenomena when
you “do it without a guru” and has been examined in
detail, notably by the author and psychiatrist, Dr. Lee Sannella, in
his book Kundalini: Psychosis or Transcendence [22], among
many others. In any case, I wound up spending two weeks in a
psychiatric clinic, drugged into oblivious stupefaction, until I
checked myself out. Luckily, the symptoms of this, my first
“psychotic episode”, abated right away as soon as I threw
away the neuroleptic drugs I had been told to maintain myself on for
months. It was not until a couple of years later, however, that the
discovery of several books on kundalini, plus going over my journal
notes, allowed me to piece together what had happened to me.

Western and
English-translation literature on kundalini was sparse when I first
stumbled across it but has grown significantly over the years. Gopi
Krishna’s many books are a good introduction to the
subject—especially his The Awakening of Kundalini,
Kundalini: The Evolutionary Energy in Man, and The Dawn of
A New Science [23]. Also worth looking at is John White’s
Kundalini, Evolution, and Enlightenment [24] and Mary Scott’s
Kundalini in the Physical World [25].

Needless to say,
kundalini energy has continued to be active in my total biosystem
manifesting in various ways. I do not regret it’s early
appearance in my life-- psychosis and all --because it has enabled me
to avail myself of theoretical and experiential data outside the
realm of most peoples’ awareness. And this knowledge has had--
and will continue to have --many significant applications in
interpersonal dimensions. Concluding on this subject, I would have to
say that it is a phenomena that Western medical science in general,
and psychiatry in particular, can no longer afford to ignore.

Having outlined the
work of several thinkers who have important things to say to the
anti-psychiatry movement, I would like to round out the discussion
with a brief analysis of my own case (of more extensive involvement
with institutional psychiatry) by dint of which an extrapolation of
further “breakthrough” concepts may emerge. I know I may
appear inappropriately self-centered, or-- wait for it!
--“narcissistic”, for offering myself up as
Exhibit A like this, but then I am the subject which I know best and,
if I don’t do this work, no one else will. It might just be of
some help or instructive use to others. I’ll try to be brief.

My “case”,
then, revolved around an incident that happened when I was working on
a job-site (as a floorlayer) and got into an argument, and then a
physical confrontation, with several other people. The police were
called, a single officer showed up who I flagged-down, giving my
statement first and stating my intention to press charges against
those who had initiated the altercation. Then, while taking
additional statements from the other disputants, one who had been
told to stand apart separately (the individual actually responsible
for the original breach of the peace) began yelling at some of his
colleagues attempting to coach them with their stories. He also
yelled at me. And I yelled back, but-- it should be stressed
--without making any threat in word or deed.Unfortunately,
however, in this emotionally charged atmosphere, this rookie police
officer apparently came to the conclusion that he needed to interject
violently, although all the parties were widely separated and there
was no immediate obvious concern about any further altercation. He,
therefore, at this point, took it upon himself to march towards me
with a wild gleam in his eye and announcing “There’s
nobody causing trouble here but you”. And, although I was
completely passive, unarmed, and had not moved an inch from where he
had asked me to stand (some 30 feet distant from the others he was
interviewing, etc.), he proceeded to make a threatening
butterfly-motion with his hand next to his gun in an effort to
intimidate me, then flipped the button on his holster and started to
draw his gun. Seeing this, I reached for an iron bar that was close
to hand (on the seat of my truck) and struck him twice, effectively
disarming him. Then I ran into a nearby structure and, after a brief
interval, surrendered peacefully to other police who had arrived on
the scene. The injuries to the policeman were not serious-- he was
hospitalized for observation less than a day --but, nevertheless, I
was charged with attempted murder—a charge that was later
thrown out in court by a judge and reduced to aggravated assault.

The case went to
pretrial and, acting on my own behalf, I presented a brief outlining
the bare facts plus some related “esoteric” musings.
These may have appeared somewhat irrational on the face of them, due
to being composed at a time of considerable stress, though I
subsequently came to view them as actually reflecting broader
verities I had become aware of but simply could not articulate-- at
that time --with sufficient coherence. Consequently, this
document was to prove instrumental in the resolution of my case as
“not guilty by reason of insanity”. But the real deciding
factor was that the young policeman who had clearly violated the
well-known rules of police procedure by precipitously attempting to
shoot an unarmed, non-threatening man, without even stating any
intention to arrest, etc., then also committed blatant perjury when
describing the event and his actions to the preliminary hearing
judge. And, since no other witnesses were in a position to
corroborate my testimony (his action vis-à-vis drawing his gun
was blocked from their view by a van, etc.), we were left with my
word against his. And whose word was the State likely to accept when
dealing with one of their own? So I was faced with telling the
truth-- that the officer illegally threatened me (arguably committing
attempted murder and assault himself while clearly not
performing his duty) and pleading “not guilty” due to
having acted in legitimate self-defense --which would not matter and,
therefore, land me in jail doing “hard time” in the most
dangerous and violent environment imaginable. Or, I could plead NGRI
and do what I supposed would be the “softer”-- but
probably longer --time in the Forensic System (Psychiatric Prison)
where I reasoned that such endemic violence would be minimal by
comparison. On the other hand, if we went the former route, all the
evidence about what this young rookie policeman had done would have
come out and he would have either had his employment terminated or
his entire future career seriously jeopardized (regardless of what
the Court did with me)—at least, so I was told. So, not wishing
this young man any harm (I sincerely forgave him virtually
immediately, having personally known and seen many inexperienced men
“flip out” irrationally in like circumstances; I had
honestly felt no malice against the man--at any time), I (we)
opted for a rapprochement of sorts whereby I took the latter route
and none of the true details were made a matter of public
court-record. That, in a nutshell, was the bare bones of my “case”.

I see several broad
lessons I have learned. First of all, taking as axiomatic the
well-known New Age dictum that “you create your own reality”,
it is only a brief conceptual leap to the realization that the
broader manifest reality is a collective product, to a significant
degree, of group consciousness (for further implications of this idea
see Shakti Gawain’s , The Path of Transformation
[footnote No. 9]). What Berger and Luckmann intimated in their The
Social Construction of Reality [26] is true at an even more
subtle, refined, level. It follows, too, that at any given time there
is a competition in reality production. In short, there is
a proverbial “war in heaven” with individualities and
group-mind (mental and/or morphic “fields”, as biologist,
Rupert Sheldrake, would say) or group-soul (as the religious
philosopher, Sri Aurobindo, would say) collectivities constantly
vying for minds and bodies to work through. Some will have more soul
force and/or mental fortitude than others. And, as Robert Anton
Wilson says in Prometheus Rising [27]: “what the thinker
thinks, the prover proves”. A concrete and relevant example of
this would be psychiatrists who predict that patients will relapse if
they go off drugs and therefore should stay on them for life. Their
whole investment in an image of themselves as having “scientific
expertise” is at stake so they, and their associated
colleagues, will try their best to “produce” or
“manufacture” madness in any individual who rejects
drugging. Similarly, the compliant individual who doesn’t know
any better-- or who simply hasn’t made the necessary conceptual
and energetic changes to arm himself against such depredations --will
consistently produce behavior to validate the drugging thesis.

What I deduce from
all of this is that my brush with the law was a socially produced
phenomena due, in part, to certain reactionary forces wanting to shut
me up verbally and/or physically and due, in part, to internal forces
in conflict over the need to grow and change. In a broader dimension,
I was conscious of having an ongoing dialogue with a group-mind
aspect of the Collective Consciousness. Seen in their proper context,
then, my more esoteric writings that seemed “objectively”
irrational-- and the perceptions they were based on --were not
inaccurate in the least. In short, at no time was I “delusional”.

An interesting
aspect of my total encounter with psychiatry was my assessment by one
court-appointed doctor (who shall remain nameless) and his subsequent
trial-testimony. In the course of my first interview with him he
learned that I was a “known-killer”, a committed
anarchist who would not scruple at exercising his British Common Law
right to “take the law into his own hands” to see that
justice was done, and a kundalini-adept who had had a previous
psychotic episode. And, apparently, this combination summed in his
mind to my being something very akin to the veritable Anti-Christ!
The “killer” stigma relates to the fact that I was forced
to kill my father in the course of intervening in a violent domestic
dispute between he and my mother when I was 17 years old. It was a
tragic incident (he was extremely drunk and out-of-control due to a
long-standing [many years] situation of daily discord and scenes with
my mother having come to a head with his just learning that she had
finally initiated divorce proceedings against him), a clear case of
legitimate self-defense (after getting my siblings to safety at the
neighbors, I returned to find the circumstance whereby, to quote the
presiding judge at the later inquiry: “I am accepting the
evidence that…his mother, might [have been] killed; I am
prepared to accept this as…a real and substantial probability
and not in the slightest way an imaginary or fanciful fear”—whereupon
I was attacked and, after retreating over the course of a lengthy
distance, responded with necessary force only when there was no
alternative [this is also clearly stated in the judge’s
findings]), and I was fully acquitted of a manslaughter charge which
was brought mainly as a mere formality to bring out the facts.
(Incredibly, I was to learn in later years that the major
interpretive rendition passed along to posterity via local “social
gossip”[as to why this event occurred] was that this
violent scene supposedly had something to do with some conflict with
myself and my father over my-- again supposedly --having been
“made to play hockey” as a youth—which was averred
to have turned me into an inordinately violent young man. This was
total B.S., but it apparently served to shield The Familial
Collective Consensus from focusing on the pretty horrific
husband/wife strife ongoing, at the root of precipitating “the
problem”—a frank recognition of which would have hit
altogether too close to the many, many homes living an unadmitted
domestic reality only too similar. [I say this without any
thought of moralistically “blaming” either of my parents,
both of whom I view as outstanding individuals who always attempted
to do their best in trying circumstances, like most people.])

In any case, I
conveyed all of this information to the doctor in question and he, in
turn, wrote in his report-- in bold capital letters --“Mr.
Fraser admitted to me that he killed his father”, as if this
was some sort of special confession elicited from me at an unguarded
moment. He also wrote that I had “attacked” my father. A
blatant inversion of the true facts that he was well aware of. And no
mention was made of my full acquittal. Plus the rest of the report
was filled with factual inaccuracies and outright distortions. But
the topper came in court when this doctor described me as “an
extremely dangerous man” and “a walking time bomb”.
A reporter from the local paper, picking up on this, even ran a story
on me under the headline: “Doctor Says Man Is Walking Time
Bomb”.

It might have been
comforting to write these comments off as just another psychiatrist
with paranoid delusions-- and that was my first inclination --but
then I got to thinking that the man had actually said something
prescient, whether he consciously apprehended its implications or
not. For having the capability to release kundalini energy is
precisely analogous to being able to detonate an atomic bomb; it’s
a secret weapon of mass consciousness destruction/creation, only on a
bioenergetic level. Its potential for “reality creation”
(/“destruction”) is tremendous. This doctor, I came to
realize, had actually paid me a very great compliment: he had sensed
the power of my soul-force and intellect, and correctly anticipated
that I was capable of toppling the whole rotting edifice of
establishment values and practices which he held sacred. Which is, of
course, what I am now doing. (One footnote should be added: I am
actually no more physically dangerous or prone to violence
than the average hockey player who might be reasonably expected to
get into an occasional fight, given such a “context”
where that’s simply an unavoidable aspect of that particular
“game”.)

A significant phase
of my incarceration-time was spent, as alluded to above, in solitary
confinement, and it merits a few comments. The circumstance came
about not through any violence on my part but as a result of a brief
verbal dispute I had with a guard (after having spent about 6 months
on a regular jail unit at a Pretrial Center). Because of this, I was
sentenced to 3 days “in the hole” but found I liked it so
much that I asked to stay and the powers-that-were graciously
obliged. Whether they realized it or not, they had put me in complete
control!

Solitary confinement
is a perfect place to get down to serious reality creation. It’s
the next best thing to an isolation tank. Being locked in a small
cell for 23 hours a day allows one to really focus awareness. There’s
a wonderful peace and quiet. And I was not without company. Nietzsche
was my constant companion and I thoroughly imbibed his Will to
Power [28]. Together with “Europe’s first consummate
nihilist” I plumbed the depths of the abyss, revalued all
values, and “invented new lies as principles”
calling them “truths” out of biological necessity. I also
managed to read Bohm-Bawerk’s 3-volume Capital and Interest
[29] (the first definitive refutation of Marx’s Capital),
among many other works.

From Nietzsche I
learned that, if one would stay the course of “the
self-overcoming of nihilism” one needs must become a conscious
“murderer of God”—which is to say Jehovah.
Indeed, I came to see that he had the first explicit “Jehovah
Contract” (see further the superb novel by Victor Koman of that
title). Further, it became apparent to me that, once you realize you
“are in this world but not of it”, you also realize that
“the god of this world” often sees you coming and does
its best to prevent your emergence. (I call this “the King
Herod syndrome”.) The teachings of certain early Gnostic sects
that Jehovah was really the “Demiurge” and, in fact, a
matriarchal godform split off from the Egyptian father-god (the
ORIGIN-al “Source”) took on more meaning. The notion that
Jehovah is an avenging bitch-goddess who killed Jesus Christ [30] for
the alleged sins of man-kind (for which he is not guilty)
gained a certain plausibility. Was it the fact that Paul had been
woman-eyes-ed when he was “swept DOWN into ‘the
3rd heaven’ ” that had caused him, henceforth,
to view the wisdom of men with contempt “born again”
of fee-male conceit (from that lower realm of false
consciousness [Mr. Cohen] where “everybody [only thinks
they] knows [everything]”)? Had Moses really been in
touch with the “I” in the triangle when he spoke to her
“burning bush”? Were prisons really male-energy
warehouses where “mean mothers” could get their
subliminal “fixes”? These, and other timeless
speculations, kept me amused while I was busy transforming the world
from my 6 by 10.

In conclusion, I
would like to say a word or two about revolutionary strategy. Robert
Anton Wilson has identified what he calls “the tar baby
syndrome” [31] – i.e., where you get stuck to the object
of your hatred. Whether you are opposing the State or Psychiatry,
then, it is imperative to do so with the maximum of good humor, to
always find some levity in the gravity of the situation. We must
realize that our oppressors are sick, misguided, devolved--
and desperately in need of “healing” --but conscious
criminals, nevertheless. We must not fall into the trap of
being “perpetual victims” no matter how much they need
our help. We need to claim our rightful restitution but, ultimately,
we must let go of these dependents and not allow them to sabotage any
further our potential to grow UP.

Author of the
anarchist classic, The Ego and His Own—The Case of the
Individual Against Authority (New York: Libertarian Book Club,
1963 [Original German edition, 1845; first English edition published
by Benjamin Tucker, 1907]), edited and introduced by James J.
Martin)—which famously begins: “All things are nothing
to me”; and concludes, similarly: “They say of God,
‘Names name thee not.’ That holds good of me: no concept
expresses me, nothing that is designated as my essence exhausts me;
they are only names. Likewise they say of God that he is perfect and
has no calling to strive after perfection. That too holds good of me
alone.
I am owner
of my might, and am so when I know myself as unique. In the
unique one the owner himself returns
into his creative nothing, of which he is born….” --
pp. 3 & 366.

George Berkeley
(1685-1753), Irish philosopher of English ancestry and Anglican
bishop of Cloyne. A noted historical exponent of immaterialism.

Shakti Gawain, The
Path of Transformation—How Healing Ourselves Can Change the
World (San Rafael, CA: New World Library, 1993).

See especially:
Swami Narayanananda, The Way to Peace, Power and Long Life
(Brahmacharya) (Rishikesh, India: Shri Narayana Press, 1945).
“Brahmacharya literally means that mode of life which leads to
the realization of God. That realization is impossible without
practicing self-restraint.” – Gandhi, Key to Health,
1960, p. 42.

C.J. Van Vliet,
The Coiled Serpent—A Philosophy of Conservation and
Transmutation of Reproductive Energy (Ahmedabad, India:
Navajivan Press, 1963). See also the shorter companion volume from
the same author and publisher: Conquest of the Serpent—A
Way to Solve the Sex Problem, 1962.

Actually, I spent
about 9 months in solitary altogether, including the 3 additional
months in a psychiatric prison sideroom following directly upon
this. All without threatening anyone or doing anything violent,
believe it or not! — more about which, presently.

“We’re
living on the Planet of the Apes. Is that funny or serious?” –
R.A. Wilson, The Illuminati Papers (Berkeley, CA: And/ Or
Press, 1980), p. 24.

Deepak Chopra,
Creating Affluence—Wealth Consciousness in the Field of All
Possibilities (San Rafael, CA: New World Library, 1993).

Two excellent and
in-depth scientific confirmations of this thesis are: The
Self-Aware Universe—How Consciousness Creates the Material
World (New York: Tarcher/ Putnam, 1993) by Amit Goswami and In
The Beginning—The Birth of the Living Universe (London:
Penguin, 1993) by John Gribbin.

It is nevertheless
important here to cleave fast, in our understanding, to the vital
truth expressed so succinctly in the formula of French Marxist
writer, Roger Garaudy, as: “The Christ of Paul is not Jesus”.
(From his book on Christian Fundamentalism: Towards a War of
Religion.)